In September 1476, a brief but illuminating entry in the treasury inventory of Bayeux Cathedral, in Normandy, noted the presence of ‘a very long and narrow embroidered hanging with images and text’ stored in the vestry. The author added that the textile was displayed in the nave for a little over a week every year, and took for its subject matter the ‘Conquest of England’. Thanks to this information, we can be confident that these two and-a-half lines of text represent our earliest confirmed sighting of the Bayeux Tapestry. By 1476, this would already have been a venerable object, as most scholars place its creation in the years following 1072, meaning that production was probably in full swing less than a decade after the events that it depicts. These played out over 1065 and – of course – 1066, and revolve around the fortunes of two men: Earl Harold Godwinson of Wessex and Duke William of Normandy, known to history as ‘the Conqueror’. The Tapestry chronicles how they became locked on a collision course by their competing claims to the English throne. This rivalry reached its deadly denouement less than a year after the death of the previous monarch, Edward the Confessor. The armies of William and Harold clashed at Hastings on 14 October 1066, and the reverberations were felt throughout England. About a third of the Bayeux Tapestry is devoted to the brutal fighting, with the imagery pulling no punches when it comes to depicting the horrors of dismembered bodies and the looting of corpses. At the climax of the battle, Harold is slain and English resistance broken.
Taken as a whole, the embroidery is undoubtedly among the most celebrated artworks to survive from medieval Europe. Yet the Bayeux Tapestry remains every bit as enigmatic as it is famous. Many of the mysteries surrounding this textile concern events that are crucial to understanding the first 400 years of its existence. These include such fundamental questions as who commissioned it, where it was made, where it was first shown, and why. Exploring some of the options introduces us to a colourful cast of characters who lived through the events of 1066, and whose fates turned for better or worse when Godwinson fell at Hastings. Indeed, given the seismic impact of the Norman victory, it is hard to believe that many – perhaps any – of the countless hands that contributed to making the Bayeux Tapestry did not have their own opinions about the events it portrays. While this immediacy surely influenced the composition of the narrative, it is surprisingly difficult to pin down a consistent pro- or anti-Norman message.
It is difficult to pin down a consistent pro- or anti-Norman message in the Bayeux Tapestry.
Urbicide: killing the city